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Local Church Administration
Legal issues surrounding the Church today;
things you need to know....
(click on the title of each article to read more)
Copying Music The woman at the adjoining machine at our local do-it-yourself
copy center had such a large stack of materials on her cart it was
difficult not to notice what she was doing. The stack included
spiral-bound songbooks, volumes of Christian music, praise choruses, and
anthems. A pile of copies lay next to those waiting to be printed. One
by one, the woman made her way through the pile, making numerous copies
of each selection. As I watched, I thought how as Christians and
churches we can be carelessly guilty of an integrity gap.
Christians and
Lawsuits Sometimes the legal issue does not pit believer against believer, but
believer versus unbeliever.
Seven
Deadly Lawsuits against your local congregation There was a time when the most significant lawsuit a
church had to fear was from someone who slipped on the sidewalk in front
of the entrance. Even then, the church might have escaped liability
because of a statutory or judicial grant of immunity. Those days are now
gone, as it seems that new causes for action against religious
institutions are being invented daily. Ten of the most common lawsuits faced by churches
today are described in this article. By familiarizing yourself with
these possible pitfalls you can help protect your church against them.
Reducing Legal Risk Churches need not be passive
targets for aggressive attorneys. Churches can take simple, meaningful
steps to reduce their risk of legal liability and litigation
significantly. The following will review some of the major legal risks
churches face and some simple recommendations on reducing risk.
Who is a minister for tax reasons? A number of federal
tax laws have unique application to ministers. Some laws, such as the
housing allowance, provide special tax benefits to ministers. Others
have an impact on how a minister pays his or her taxes. A key point,
however, is that the Internal Revenue Service has its own definition of
who is a minister for tax purposes. All new ministers must determine if
they fall under that definition in order to properly determine and
report their federal income taxes.
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